L’Aquila C.A.S.E. Project

In 2009 a strong earthquake event took place in L’Aquila, causing massive damage of the existing buildings both in the downtown and in the surrounding parts of the city. The main shock occurred the 06 of April at 01:32 UTC, and was rated between 5.8 and 5.9 of the Richter magnitude scale. Following the main event several thousands of foreshocks and aftershocks were experienced, thirty of which with a Richter magnitude greater than 3.5.

Considering the level of criticality of this event, the Italian Government promoted via its Department of Homeland Security (Protezione Civile) an extraordinary emergency plan based on the construction of sustainable earthquake-resistant residential buildings. One of the main challenge that characterised this project was the requirement of providing a very detailed design in a very short delivery time, proceeding immediately with the following construction activities.

In this context SWS was appointed for the engineering services related to the structural design of 2 prefabricated buildings and to the definition of the associated MEP systems. Furthermore, the Company was required to support the General Contractor in the definition of the construction sequence.

In order to provide a reliable service, the project was followed using 2 teams: one based in Trento headquarter and one specifically conceived to provide an on-site work supervision.